Naptown Pint: Maryland legislators should treat all brewers equally

Liz Murphy lives in Annapolis with her husband, Patrick, and their two lazy dogs, Horatio and Nugget. Liz also runs her own Annapolis-based beer blog, Naptown Pint.

Liz Murphy lives in Annapolis with her husband, Patrick, and their two lazy dogs, Horatio and Nugget. Liz also runs her own Annapolis-based beer blog, Naptown Pint. (Courtesy photo)

Naptown Pint: Maryland legislators should treat all brewers equally

FeBREWary — the monthlong celebration of Maryland craft beer — has just ended. You'd think after almost 28 days of revelry and beer exploration I'd be in a great mood, but I'm not. I'm angry.

I'm angry, because there are currently three bills in front of the Maryland General Assembly that have thrown the often willful dysfunction of our state's brewery laws into the spotlight. I realize now I was naive in believing that, given the opportunity to finally do right by local brewers, we would do so with ease. Instead, here we are, on the edge of undercutting them.

It's like the time I swore, no matter what the rumors said, Han Solo was totally going to make it out of "The Force Awakens" alive — but life is cruel, so he didn't. And then, after a few minutes of my awkward, muffled sobbing, my husband asked if we needed to leave the theater.

(OK, that's not really the same thing … let's just move on.)

The three bills in question are House Bill 1420, House Bill 1391 and House Bill 1283.

HB 1420 is a bill of opportunity, in which Maryland brewers across the state would finally have a level playing field, through the creation of a "Class 10" brewery license. Currently, Maryland laws pertaining to breweries vary drastically, from county to county — creating a conflicting patchwork of stifling, sometimes arbitrarily growth-prohibiting legislation.

The Guinness brewery will draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and help "create a Maryland beer halo" that will boost the beer industry,...

The owner of Guinness beer made a pitch to state lawmakers Monday to increase the amount of beer that can be sold at the brewery it's planning to open in Relay.

The Guinness brewery will draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and help "create a Maryland beer halo" that will boost the beer industry,...

(Pamela Wood)

That's why I — and others (including 50-plus House cosponsors), like this bill — dubbed the "Modern Brewery Bill." It would catapult Maryland out of the Stone Age, by creating a healthy, competitive environment for small, independent, local brewers to grow a sustainable, profitable business with more progressive parameters in place.

Enter stage left: Guinness.

Guinness wants to put down roots in Baltimore County. To do so, however, the international giant wants guaranteed expanded operating hours and, most of all, increased volume caps around how much beer they can sell in their taproom.

The good news is that the increase from 500 barrels (1,000 kegs) of allowed brewery taproom volume to 4,000 barrels (8,000 kegs) afforded by HB 1420 would accomplish just that. And because Maryland brewers are all genuinely excited to have Guinness come to town — a rising beer tide in Maryland raises all ships, folks — you'd think this would be the end of the story.

Nope. Meet HB 1391, also known as the "Diageo-Guinness Bill."

This bill only exists because there are concerns that HB 1420 might not pass. While the Guinness crew is very supportive of local brewers, their primary objective is to ensure they can get their Maryland operations up and running.

I don't fault them for that, nor should you.

This bill would provide almost identical benefits as HB 1420 — although it seeks 5,000 barrels in a taproom setting, instead of 4,000 barrels — but only as a special exception for Guinness in Baltimore County and no one else in any other jurisdiction.

Then there's HB 1283, which is a rollback that is flat-out punitive. Its sole purpose is to force breweries into restrictive operating hours in their taprooms, so they "can't compete" with bars: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays.

Here's the best part: In addition to increasing taproom volume, HB 1391 would also allow Guinness to operate outside of those hours, exempting them from the limitations that would be imposed by HB 1283.

This is why I'm angry. We're talking about fundamental principles of fairness, where the choice is to either green-light a bill that empowers all brewers, or to sign off on two that clearly undermine local breweries, while granting a free pass to a single, international conglomerate.

OK, let's put my chest-pounding rhetoric to the side for a moment. Why is this happening? Brewers Association of Maryland Executive Director Kevin Atticks recently walked me through this complicated legislative quagmire.

"My sense is there is a larger struggle happening about the evolution of alcohol sales in Maryland," Atticks shared. "You have (brewers) who are working diligently to respond to their customers and respond to the evolving marketplace. Then, on the other side, you've got a set of licenses representing wholesalers and some retailers who, at this point, don't want to see anything else change."

Opposing wholesalers and retailers feel threatened by breweries that have a more retail-focused mentality in their taprooms, citing that it would hurt their businesses. Why? Consumers will go to breweries, not bars or stores, to make their purchases.

"If you take all of the beer that all of our breweries sell for on-premises consumption — which is what this argument is about — and you overlay it on top of all the beer sold in Maryland, we're talking about maybe one-one hundredth of a percent of all beer sold in Maryland," Atticks countered. "Even if you doubled it, tripled it … if you went tenfold and let every brewery sell 5,000 barrels, we'd maybe crack a 10th of a percent."

In addition, Jim Bauckman, sales and marketing director of Monocacy Brewing Co. in Frederick, notes a lack of malicious intent on the side of brewers.

"Our goal is for the volume of beer sold in a taproom to be promotional. We want it to send people to the liquor store or to the next bar to order our beer," Bauckman pointed out. "The absolute last thing Maryland breweries want to do is take away from retail business ... It's not us versus them, and our business wouldn't succeed without them."

Denizens Brewing Co. co-founder Julie Veratti agrees.

"Their logic is counter intuitive. We sell our beer in cans at the brewery, but we sell more beer through (retail) stores, because that's where people buy their beer," Veratti said. "Unless it's some special release you can only get at a taproom, consumers will do their beer shopping elsewhere, most of the time."

In fact, one of her most profitable retail accounts is literally two blocks away from the brewery.

As a consumer, I also agree. Breweries are where I go when I want to forge a connection with a particular brand, take a fun field trip or snag a limited-run rarity not carried by retailers. But Bay Ridge Wine and Spirits, Mills Wine and Fishpaws take almost all of my beer dollars, with the rest going to the local bartenders in Annapolis who inquire after my welfare if they don't see me for awhile.

Bottom line, legislators and other special interests need to stop telling our brewers — both explicitly and through our actions — they "made a choice to be a brewery." Yes, people actually say that as a justification to push them into anti-competitive corners with unfair, antiquated laws.

They might as well come right out and say, "You're lucky we allow you to exist as a brewery at all so, keep your mouth shut and be happy with what you get."

It's time for this bullying of local breweries to end. Legislators, I urge you to support HB 1420 and say no to HB 1283. (Or, at the very least, amend HB 1391 to have the rules apply to all Maryland breweries.) That way we will still get Guinness, and our local Maryland breweries will get the fairness they deserve.

Otherwise, you will be sending a very clear message: "Maryland is 'open for business' — unless you're a small, independent Maryland brewer, of course."

Liz Murphy lives in Annapolis with her husband, Patrick, and their two lazy dogs, Horatio and Nugget. Liz also runs her own Annapolis-based beer blog, Naptown Pint. You can usually find her kicking back a pint (or four) at 1747 Pub off Church Circle. Or you can just set a scotch ale out on your porch, and she'll be there in five minutes. You can reach her at liz@naptownpint.com.